The Netherlands part 2

After I left Groningen I had 3 more days in The Netherlands. I got to stay with my friend Rob and his family in Utrecht, they were all really nice :)
The first day we spendt on going to an amusement park (surprised?) called Walibi. Harm (another friend that lives in the area) tagged along as well. It was actually a pretty cool park, they had 6 big rollercoasters, their own version of a sky coaster and several other rides that we took. After the park closed we went to Harms place for a few drinks, somehow we ended up playing cards with several members of his family as well - was so much fun we forgot the time and stayed for quite some time. We got back to Rob's place so late we didnt even meet his dad and stephmother.


The next day we spendt in Utrecht and the surrounding area. first Harm and Rob showed me arround in central utrecht. Nice city with quite a few canals, a tall tall tower, beautifull church, etc. They also had a pretty cool sign outside of the central station pointing to several citys in europe, including Oslo :) After we had walked arround for a while I got to try some local food - Broodje Mario. Some kind of sandwich-ish thing that they only have in Utrecht, tasted really good actually. As it turned out there is also a really awesome castle just outside of Utrecht from the 14th century called de Haar. I really liked it there, we just missed the last guided tour inside of the castle, but the outside looked awesome too so it was allright. In the evening we went back to Harms place again to say goodbye before we went back and had dinner with Robs dad and stephmum. Apparently they really liked me and wanted to see me before I left again too, that was kind of sweet :) BBQ out in the sun really is nice, and we just made it before a huge thunderstorm came. Bad weather never stopped me though and Rob and I went back to Utrecht in the evening to see a movie.

My last day in the Netherlands Rob and I went back to Amsterdam so I would have some more time to actually see the city. We walked arround for a bit looking at buildings and stuff like that and then we went on a canalcruise.. damn there are many canals in that city, its insane! After the cruise Rob helped me to find one of the very few things I remember from the last time I went to Amsterdam - a pancakehouse that looked like a carousel. I was 5 back then and it ment a lot to me to be able to go back to the same place and see if it was like I remembered - and hey it was still there! :) I even ordered the same pancake - with stawberries and cream.
In the evening it was time to go back to Oslo again, wich was actually very sad as we had made really good friends. Nothing to do about it though I have work and then China so off I went, Rob took me to the airport and then we said goodbye. My plane was actually delayed by arround 45 mins because of a KLM plane blocking it, so that was kind of annoying - especially since it was originally leaving really late. We landed 15 minutes before midnight and I was lucky enough to find a bus to Oslo right away. Got home arround 1.30 in the morning, tired as hell, hehe. Thank god I didnt have a shift today, would have been terrible - am working tomorrow though, but that will be fine :)

The Netherlands part 1

So I didn't blog for a while, as I was on vacation in the Netherlands, the land of windmills, drugs, bikes,cheese, canals and so much more! :)
A bunch of us from World of Warcraft (also known as the guild Bloodline) wanted to meet up and we decided on the Netherlands as quite a few of us live there. I met up with another norwegian, Josefine, in Oslo first. We met a little too early and just had cofee and talked and stuff before we took the plane. She was actually really nice and it was great to get to meet her first. We took the plane to Amsterdam where we met Søren from Denmark. The three of us stayed for one night before going to Groningen as our planes landed a bit late to take the train even further. We didnt have much time in Amsterdam, but at least we got to check out the nightlife. It was pretty special how obviously people were doing drugs, my impression was that the whole city smelled like it, not to mention the red light district, thats just not how it is at home.. at all!
We were going to see some more of the city the next day, but we didn't find anywhere to put our luggage as the lockers at Amsterdam Central station were broken and just accepted dutch creditcards, so we didnt do much before our train left. The actual gathering was a bit outside of central Groningen in a house we rented at a campsite. It was loads of fun to meet up with everyone, kind of weird as well as I have talked to most of them for a long time, just never actually met with them. Mostly we just talked, ate, drank and played cards - but that was actually really nice. The highlights for me was when we went to the playground in the middle of the night and when we made the guys cook dinner for us. Everyone was really nice and Im kind of sad that I won't be playing with them anymore (as I have more or less quit the game now that Im going to move to China and everything), ah well I will just have to try and stay in touch somehow. I left the gathering a little early to go stay at my friend Rob's place in Utrecht, and the others all followed me to the car - making him promise to get me home safe, kind of sweet of them. Will write about the rest of my trip in the next blog entry, laters.

Still in Iceland..

You probably all know, but yesterday there was another eruption here in Iceland. This time it was Grimsvötn apparently. It is located pretty far away from Koppavogur wich is where Im staying, but obviously the air traffic is closed for now so Im stuck here. The ash cloud from the vulcano is real close to Koppavogur and tomorrow the area might be covered in ashes when I wake up. Im not in any danger though, so I don't want anyone to worry about me, worst case scenario there is a boat leaving for Denmark this thursday we can probably take. My only issue with that is my final in Business to Business marketing that is also this thursday - I guess an eruption should qualify as a valid reason for not making it though. We decided to go to the Blue Lagoon wich is close to the airport and see what happened. This morning everything seemed really normal - the sun was up and there was hardly even any clouds. The Blue Lagoon was beautifull in the sun, rather crowded though as people had taken the bus there from the airport. We're the lucky ones, Sigga (that owns this guesthouse) has kept us updated on everything that has been happening all along, and the first thing she said about the eruption was "We might have to adopt you, you might have to stay here", so we have a place to stay and everything. On our way home we saw the ash clouds, my dad didn't even belive me at first and he said it was probably just rain or something - but I knew it was the wrong color, hehe. I can see it on the outside of my window now, looks like fog, but a slightly more black color. I don't even know how to react to this kind of thing, but as long as there's no danger I guess it's actually a pretty unique and interesting experience - Im really curious about how everything will look tomorrow morning, hehe.

Iceland Day 6 - Reykjavik Zoo

Today my parents were at their conference in Koppavogur again, so me and Ludvig took Ida to the Zoo. As Iceland is never really all that warm, even in the summer, I guess they just didn't want to keep african animals there. They had cows, horses, goats, sheep and other household animals as well as seals, arctic foxes, raindeers and some aquatic animals. It was a nice little zoo and Ida loved it. Now she is at the local pool again (3rd day in a row) with my parents - later on we are all going to have dinner in Reykjavik and then Ludvig and I are going out again.

Iceland day 5 - Horses :D

Today my parents had to work a bit, so Ludvig, Ida and I went horseback riding. Iceland horses are pretty short (but don't ever call them ponys to a person from Iceland's face) and they have tons of hair. They also have their own special gate (tølt) that is pretty cool. When the people working at the stables heard that I already knew how to do this they decided to give me a rather lively horse. I had to hold back the entire time as all he wanted to do was run past the other horses. It was real nice to go horseback riding again and I think I managed to try the special gate at least once, but it might just have been a weird trot rather than tølt, can't know for sure as I never tried before.

Iceland day 4 - more nature + a pub in Reykjavik

Today we went into the Icelandic nature on our own. We went to one of the places where you can see the boder between the European and the American land masses, it was pretty cool . Then we went to a huge waterfall called Gullfoss or something like that, it was huge anyhow - really beautifull. After the waterfall it was time to see some geysirs. Not all of the geysirs in the area we went to are still active, but Strokkur can still be as tall as 25-3o meters. It was really awesome to see this unique nature phenomenon up close. In the evening me and my brother decided to go back to Reykjavik and check out the nightlife. The city seemed pretty dead, but we found a sports bar that was pretty nice. It was only about 5 people there, but the guy working at the bar was really cool and we met 3 other guys from Reykjavik as well. We got a free shot of icelandic "brennevin" that was actually pretty strong - apparentlu it is like norwegian akeitt only without the extra apple flavor according to the icelandic dudes. Definitely a great day and a great evening as well :)

Iceland day 3 - Into the wild

Today we went on a daytrip with a man from Iceland called Bjarki. Several of the others from my parents congress was there as well. We went into the Icelandic nature with a special 4 wheels bus that can drive places a car just simply can't. Our first stop was by a huge waterfall that we could also walk behind and make a wish, it was pretty cool. We also saw the bottom of Eyjafjallajökull (the volcano that caused all the problems with the air traffic last year), but we couldn't go any further up, as there was a snowstorm up there. We had to go with plan B, but that was actually a pretty awesome trip as well. We went deep into a canyon. At the very end of the canyon there was a small cave with a waterfall inside. It was a pretty magical place, the light and the rock formations combined with the waterfall was just briliant. Really nice day, but it will be nice to drive our own car tomorrow. Bjarki was a brilliant guide and most of the others were really really nice, but some of the Germans simply used way too much time - Bjarki said to meet at 2.30 and they would be back arround 3.30 and so on. Got two more photos I want to show you guys - the left is me in front of Eyjafjallajökull and the right one is me in the waterfall cave (both stolen from my dad, hehe)

Iceland day 2 - Reykjavik

Day two here in Iceland started with a very nice breakfast at the guest house with some of the other people going to the same seminar as my parents. Then we went to meet a guy called Bjarki. We are going on a trip that he is arranging tomorrow into the wild so we just wanted to say hello and find out where to show up tomorrow morning. Bjarki was a really nice and very social guy, so we ended up having cofee. He also showed us arround a bit and told us where to find a convinience store, etc. Then we went to central Reykjavik. The city isn't really all that big, but the nature surrounding it is really beautifull. We also went to Hallgrímskirkja, that is a rather new church. The wiew from the top tower was pretty awesome. My parents friend recommended a guided tour at the culture house. The tour was pretty interesting, as Icelands history also includes Norway every now and then. The vikings moved to Iceland from Norway and Iceland has also been under us at some point. We got to have a look at some of the oldest books found in Iceland, written on calf skin The guide was really awesome as well. In the evening we had dinner at Perla (the pearl). Perla is the tallest point in Reykjavik and it is also where all the hot water they use is gathered in huge tanks. At the top of these tanks there is a restaurant overlooking the entire city, the wiew is amazing. The tables actually rotate slowly as well so the wiew changed as we sat there eating. The food tasted great too, so it was definitely a nice dinner. Tomorrow we are going on that trip into the wild, so that will be awesome too :D

Iceland day 1 - The Blue Lagoon

Today I went to Iceland with my family and so far I just love it here. The trip started with possibly the nicest planeride I have ever been on. We had our own touch screens, free drinks and tons of extra stuff for my little sister. All of this for a 2 hour flight, I think Im using Iceland air if I ever decide to go to America as well, hehe. At the airport we met up with the people we will be staying with, Sigga and her husband that I forgot the name of. They were great too, took our luggage to the guest house while we took the rental car (that they had also gotten for us) to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon, needless to say, was definitely a pretty unique experience. The air temperature in Iceland now is at about 7 degrees while the water was at least 30, if not even warmer. I can only imagine how weird it must be in the winter, hehe. We stayed in The Blue Lagoon untill it closed before we headed back to the guest house. Sigga and her husband met us and showed us the rooms, I really like it here. We got a free wifi, a jacuzzi, a kitchen and well yeah.. everything we need :) Sigga actually talks almost norwegian. In Iceland everyone learns danish, but they pronounce it like norwegians would have - so when they talk "scandinavian" as they like to call it it's a mix between danish and norwegian (at least thats what it sounds like to me) and quite easy to understand. We are going to check out central Reykjavik and then maybe go for a drive tomorrow - as we got free internet and theres not that much to do arround the guest house in the evening I will most likely be updating my blog a lot ^^

My trip to London

I just got home from London last night. It was a really great trip, partly because of the great city and partly because of the awesome people I traveled with (Lene, Margrethe, Camilla, Luna, Maja and Knut). Going to tell you a little bit about what we did every day now - so this will probably be a very long blog entry, added some titles though so you can easily get back to it and read the rest later if it's too long :)
Getting there:
We took a pretty late plane to London, in fact Im not sure if I have ever arrived so late in the evening to any of my vacations before. We landed at Stansted arround 11 in the evening local time (so thats 12 in Norway) and by the time we had gotten through security it was already close to midnight. We took the bus from there and arrived at Liverpool Street arround 1 in the morning, then we got taxis to the hostel where we arrived half past 1 or something like that. Good thing the reception desk was open untill 4. Allthough we stayed at a 14 person dorm, only one person were alseep when we got there, the rest were probably out drinking or something as they were there in the morning. The dorm was quite allright considering it was a 14 person dorm, my bunk had a little safe, a nightlight and walls.

Day 1 (The Kernel, The Nathional Art Gallery and randomness):
Some of the girls wanted to use at least two days on shopping in Oxford street so 4 of us went there already the first day. I didn't really have the money to buy a whole lot though, and Knut and Camilla wanted to go to a micro brewerey so I figured that was a smarter thing to do. It was a really nice and sunny morning and we got of the subway close to the Thames. We had a nice wiew of Tower Brigde and the Belfast as we walked towards Druid Street (where the brewery was located). The micro brewery, The Kernel, located under a train bridge was only open on saturdays and just untill 3. Going there was really awesome, the beer was brilliant and the staff was friendly and helpfull as well. We actually tasted tons of beer for free before we even bought anything. Knut bought 12 bottles of beer to bring home with him to Norway and we all got a few bottles that we enjoyed in the sun. Like I said all of the beer was great, I especially liked the citra that tasted kind of mangoish (mangoish was the guy working there's term - I did NOT make it up ;P). I really regret not buying some bottles to bring home now.
When we had finished our beers we headed to the Nathional Art gallery, we didn't have a whole lot of time there in the end, but it was pretty nice untill it closed. When we got out from the gallery it was raining all of a sudden. This was actually st Georges day so we ran into some sort of celebration as well, people singing on a stage the crowd all singing along.
A little rain never stopped us either, so we headed down to Westminster to have a look at the Parlament and Westminster abbey. The pictures didn't really turn out that great though so won't post them here.
In the evening we went back to the hostel, but we didn't find the rest of the group so the three of us went out to dinner on our own instead. Then we went out for some more drinking. Met the others on our way, but they wanted to get an early start in the morning so they didn't join us at the pub. It was a pretty quiet evening apparently, not a lot of people out - the pub did have Strongbow on tap though so I was happy regardless. Was a really awesome cat walking arround as well, it tried to get into the snacks shelf all the time.









Day 2 (Hyde park, the Natural History Museum and Buckimham Palace):
Day two we all went to Hyde park and the Natural History Museum together. The park was pretty supersize compared to the ones we have here in Oslo and there was some nice monuments as well. The Natural History Museum was pretty huge as well, tons of exhabitions most of them free. I went to see the dinosaur one, the creepy crawlers, the apes, the sea animals and the stones (cause they had diamonds there as well). I still didn't see it all though, it was a really big museum. After the museum we went back to the park to slack there for a few hours in the sun. It was really great to have time to just sit in the grass and relax.
In the evening Lene and I decided we wanted to go see something more, and decided pretty much at random that Buckimham Palace was the place to go. Going to see it after dark was actually real nice. Hardly any people there at all and the castle looked great. We realised The Clocktower (often called Big Ben though that is just the bell inside it) and London Eye was within alking distance as well so figured why not have a look at them after dark too. Then we got the last subway back to Kings Cross and tried some fish and chips (great food, bring it to Norway:) ). When we got back everyone was playing cards, next to our group was a group of British Marine Bilogists playing Munchkin - me and Luna couldnt stop staring at their game so eventually they invited us over, hehe. They seemed real nice, but they were leaving in the morning so we didn't meet them again.

Day 3 (St Pauls, River Cruise, Comic Book Stores and China Town)
The third day we first went to have a look at St Pauls cathedral,I decided to wait outside as it did cost quite a lot to enter (close to 30 pounds) and I have seen it before when I went to London with my family, the other girls didnt want to pay for entering either, but Knut went inside. It still looked really great on the outside though and we were perfectly happy at Starbucks meanwhile. Late on we split up again, I went with Maja, Lene and Margrethe down to the Thames. It was yet another nice and sunny day and we found some really cheap tickets to a short cruise (4 pounds or so). The captain was pretty awesome, he told us about all the major sights as we went down the rived, but he also made funny comments like
"Do remeber to bring all of your personal belongings, it would ruin your day if you left something valuable for me to sell on Ebay".
After the cruise we went to some huge comic book stores (yeah not really a tourist thing to do, but they dont have comic book stores that big in Norway!) where Maja especially got tons of random stuff mostly related to dr Who. I also found a cupcake place that I insisted on trying out, in love with cupcakes after we got free ones one day at school. Then we went to Chinatown, but we decided to eat at a Japanese Restaurant (why have chinese food in Chinatown right? :P). They also had a purikuri machine close by (purikuri are sticker pictures that you get to draw on, etc before printing them out) so we obviously had to check that out as well. Purikuri is great fun, I liked the machines in Japan better, but it was fun to take a series in London as well.








Day 4 (Oxford Street, Tate Modern and a great Pub):
Most of the others wanted to do some major shopping on the 4th day, and I figured, even if Im kind of saving money at the moment, I could join and just have a look arround Oxford street at least, maybe buy a few small things. I did pretty good actually, all I got was one t-shirt from UniQlo that was on sale and some tea. And thats all the shopping I did on the entire trip, didn't think I could pull the whole not shop to much thing of, but I did. Later on Camilla, Knut and I went to Tate Modern. We got there kind of late, so we just had about 90 minutes there, but we did check out the entire 5th floor at least before it closed. Modern art is kind of confusing at times, but I saw several pieces that I really liked there as well. They had severa documentary photos on display that made me feel really sad, but were still really good for example. Some of the super modern sculptures were kind of cool as well actually, so Im happy I joined. Close to Tate Modern we found a pub that also sold food, and as we were kind of hungry we decided to eat there. Somehow we ended up staying for quite some time drinking as well and me and Camilla met a couple of really cool british guys that we played dart with for a while. Good thing we met them, as we didn't know the actual rules. We took the bus home when the pub closed, and got to sit in the front seats on the second floor - YAY!

The last day (John Soane's Museum and getting to the airport)
We actually had some time before leaving for Stansted the last day so some of us went back to Oxford Street while Knut, Margrethe and I went to Sir John Soane's museum. It was a pretty tiny house with tons and tons of art inside of it. One of the highlights were a small room with 100 paintings in it - the guide just kept opening up the walls to reveal more paintings and eventually a sculpture. No pictures was allowed sadly, but this is a post card I bought just to have a picture of the room with all the painings. The others had gotten tons and tons of stuff from Oxford Street, think most of the other girls spendt arround 1000 NOK at least. I love shopping as well, but I had a great time at the museum and I definitely need to save up for China. To get back to Standsted we got on the bus again, but it was kind of late and getting seats on it was like a death match so that took a while too. When we got to the check in they were calling for all passengers to Rygge airport to come to the front of the line, and on the other side of security we barely had time to visit the taxfree at all. As it turned out our plane didn't really depart on time either though so our rushing to the ryanair part of the airport was all for standing in line waiting. From Rygge it was yet another bus, but we got home eventually and it was really nice to sleep in my own bed again even if I miss England already.

Leaving for London Tomorrow :)

I might not update my blog for a while, as I will be leaving for London tomorrow - yay!
Last time I was there I just had to rush through the city trying to find my train to Birmingham, so atually staying there will be a nice change. I have been on vacation in London before as well though, with my parents and my brother (Ida wasn't born yet) and we did definitely have a nice time there. My parents did apparently have some trouble with their hotel though, wasn't clean and the staff was pretty awfull to them - ended up with them changing hotels before I even got there, haha. Hope nothing like that happens to me and my friends when we go there now. We will be staying at a youth hostel, in a 14 person dorm.. but I still hope its clean, haha :) Economicaly speaking this trip is the worst possible idea right now, as I have to save money for China and all, but getting to go on this trip with my awesome friends from the old Chinese class will most likely be 100% worth it. We have saved some money on staying at the dorm and also by flying with Ryanair as well, so as long as I manage to not spend too much on shopping I think I should be more or less fine. Expect one long long blog entry in about a week or so! :D